internment camp

noun

1. a prison camp for the confinement of prisoners of war, enemy aliens, political prisoners, etc.
2. a concentration camp for civilian citizens, especially those with ties to an enemy during wartime, as the camps established by the United States government to detain Japanese Americans after the Pearl Harbor attacks.

Word History and Origins

Origin of internment camp¹

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

More than a million Uyghurs have been detained in internment camps, according to a United Nations human rights committee, and many other Uyghurs have been targeted and hacked by state-backed cyberattacks.

From TechCrunch

Former residents of the area say the government has sent their family members to internment camps, made them harvest cotton and take up other work and intimidated them into ceasing contact with the outside world.

From Washington Post

Around 1 million Uyghurs and members of other minority groups are believed to have been held and mistreated by authorities in internment camps in Xinjiang, a northwestern region of China.

From Quartz

Around 1 million Uyghurs and members of other ethnic minority groups are believed by many Western governments to have been held and mistreated by authorities in internment camps in this northwestern region of China.

From Quartz

Around 1 million Uyghurs and members of other ethnic minority groups are believed to have been held and mistreated by authorities in internment camps in this northwestern region of China.

From Quartz

After a few months, her mother was ordered to an internment camp.

From The Daily Beast

He returned to London and was promptly arrested, as were many refugees, and sent to an internment camp.

From The Daily Beast

To avoid the dreaded internment camp he had successfully passed as a Luxemburger.

From Project Gutenberg

Well, amongst these liberated captives was one who told a sad tale of starvation at his internment camp.

From Project Gutenberg

As for the supernumeraries, Bournef and the others, we shall have them stowed away in an internment-camp before a week is past.

From Project Gutenberg

And, like Jones, he refused to let a Nazi internment camp finish him off for good.

From Project Gutenberg

A cricket match was taking place near a German internment camp.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• gas chamber
• gulag
• prison camp